Western University researchers have tapped the help of hundreds of amateur and professional astronomers in an effort to make sure no meteor is unable to slip by the Earth undetected. To do that, they're relying on the observations taken from 450 cameras in 30 different countries manned by "enthusiastic amateur astronomers" made up of professional and citizen scientists. That data is then sent to Western University as part of what's called the Global Meteor Network (GMN), headed by Denis Vida. "So we have a lot of enthusiastic amateur astronomers, citizen scientists and also professionals that build, operate and maintain these cameras," Vida told CBC's Chris dela Torre during Afternoon Drive. "And every night they inspect the data set and send their data to a central server here at the University of Western Ontario."

Source: CBC News July 27, 2021 23:15 UTC